for Christian Estrosi, “it’s not a religious matter, it’s a matter of political provocation”

The mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi reacted on Friday June 16 on France Bleu Azur after the prayers which took place in several schools in his city. For him, “It’s not a religious matter, it’s a matter of political provocation”.

In a joint press release this Friday, the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye and the Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi confirmed that “some students organized religious times and prayers during the midday break”. Also according to the press release, “three elementary schools in Nice, a college and a high school in the Alpes-Maritimes” are concerned. The rector of the Nice academy, Natacha Chicot, specifies that the facts which took place in the school concern the wearing of an abaya (traditional Muslim clothing) for which the student was temporarily excluded.

Three college students excluded in Nice

Concerning the facts of prayers in the four other schools, they date from mid-May or the beginning of June. In two elementary schools, 13 pupils in CM1 gathered at noon in the courtyard to pray (ten in one school and three in the other). In a third school, this time, it was a single CM2 student who called on his classmates to participate in a minute of silence in memory of the prophet. In this specific case, the student was reported by the academic inspectorate to the prefecture for a suspicion of radicalization. Finally, in a college in Nice, three students also prayed at lunchtime. According to the rector of the academy, contacted by France Bleu Azur, these three college students have been definitively excluded from their establishment.

Friday, facing the press, the mayor of the city believes that “Of course, we cannot accuse children” to be at the origin of this affair “at that age”. For the mayor, “there is necessarily an instrumentalization”. He questions: “Where does it come from? From parents? From neighborhood leaders who could manipulate them without the parents necessarily knowing about it? The fact is that it is in the context of education”. Christian Estrosi asserts that “The school of the Republic in terms of secularism must be a sanctuary. We must not have our calves faltering on a subject like this. It is the benchmark subject in the Republic.”

An investigation by the General Inspectorate is open. The day before, Thursday, the mayor wrote on Twitter that he had “seized Elisabeth Borne and the prefect of the department” in this file.